Various products are fabricated by sequential addition of components to previously supplied components. An important application area is in the manufacturing of electronic components as a stack of foils. Subsequent foils in the stack have electronic functional areas that in contact with each other perform an electronic function. A first foil forms a substrate foil whereon a next foil, the laminating foil, is laminated, e.g. by gluing. In the manufacture of said electronic components it is important that mutually subsequent foils are accurately positioned with respect to each other in order that corresponding electronic features in the subsequent foils accurately contact each other.
It is desirable that the manufacturing process can take place in a continuous production line so as to keep production costs at a moderate level. When manufacturing electronic components as a stack of foils, this would necessitate supplying the foils from separate rolls in a longitudinal direction and attaching them to each other. However, the foils tend to stretch due to the force with which they are transported. The amount of stretching is difficult to predict, as it depends on various factors, such as the influence of the temperature of the environment on the foil, the variations in the elasticity of the foil, e.g. due to variations in the thickness of the foil. The amount of stretching further depends on the nature of the specific electronic structures applied in the foil, i.e. a density with which the structures are applied and a direction with which they are applied.
Even if initially the displacement is negligible, small deviations may accumulate to substantial displacements in the longitudinal direction between two subsequent foils. Moreover, even small foil deformations can result in residual stresses in the resulting product. These residual stresses have a negative influence on the performance and reliability of the product.
It is noted that WO 98/06576 describes a lamination device wherein a substrate foil and a laminating foil are mutually aligned. In the prior art document the motion of the foils is controlled by cogs at a roll that cooperate with perforations in the foils. By pulling and knocking the foils are realigned.